Could this racism be a result of a disintegrating mind?

[cyclonefence]

3. My mother, in the throes of Alzheimer's,

referred loudly and in his presence to one of the staff members at her care facility as an n-word, a word she would never have spoken when she was well. I apologized to the man she was speaking of, and he smiled and told me that that happens all the time when people begin to lose their minds, that he thought of it in the same way as losing bowel control--unpleasant to deal with, but not intentional on the patient's part.